Canada to roll out new advisory council on US trade ahead of deal review: Report

The Canadian government plans to announce the formation of a new advisory council to assess the state of trade with its southern neighbor ahead of a formal review of the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Agreement, according to a report published Monday.

Michael Sabia, the clerk of Canada's Privy Council, and Janice Charette, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s chief trade negotiator to the US, will lead the panel, CTV News reported.

The report comes one day after Carney said Canada's historically close ties to the US have turned into "weaknesses" that Ottawa must now urgently address.

"The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression," he said in a video address.

"Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct."

Carney dismissed any hope that Washington would return to its previous trade posture.

"Hope isn't a plan, and nostalgia is not a strategy," he said, adding that Canada could not afford to bet its future on disruptions from the US suddenly stopping.

He unveiled an ambitious economic and national security strategy aimed at drastically reducing Canadian dependence on its southern neighbor.

The plan, which Carney called "CanadaStrong," aims to catalyze $1 trillion in investment, unify the country's 13 provincial economies into a single internal market, build new trade and energy corridors and double clean energy capacity.

He said Canada has already signed 20 new trade deals across four continents in under a year, arguing the country "has what the world wants."

Canada, the US and Mexico face a July 1 deadline to renegotiate their free trade agreement. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said April 7 that he foresees the need for separate new deals with the US's North American neighbors.

“We do have to have some kind of a protocol with Mexico and one with Canada separately,” he said. “Our import export profile is different with each country, and the labor situation in each country is different. The reasons why we have deficits with these countries are different. So it necessitates two separate protocols that we can, I think, layer over those loadbearing pillars of USMCA."

Greer also said negotiations will continue ahead of a USMCA Joint Review Meeting scheduled for July 1.